GERMAN HISTORICAL INSTITUTE, WASHINGTON, D.C. BULLETIN ISSUE 29 FALL 2001 CONTENTS PREFACE OBITUARY: EDMUND SPEVACK (1963–2001) FEATURES Gerd Bucerius Lecture 2001: Democracy Under Pressure: The European Experience Lord Ralf Dahrendorf ............................................ 5 From Harry S to George W.: German–American Relations and American Presidents Robert Gerald Livingston ..................................... 15 Comparative History: Buyer Beware Deborah Cohen .................................. 23 GHI RESEARCH Scientists, Scholars, and the State: Germany and the United States in World War I Christoph Strupp ............................................ 35 CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS Grassroots Democracy? A Comparative History of Communities and State Building in New England and Germany, 1500–1850 Johannes Dillinger .............................................................................................. 53 Archaeology of the Present: Photographs by Gerhard Faller-Walzer Cordula Grewe.................................................................................................... 58 Prussia—Yesterday and Tomorrow Robert Gerald Livingston .................... 63 Europe in Cross-National and Comparative Perspective Vera Lind ............................................................................................................ 65 Postwar German Generations and the Legitimacy of the Republic Vera Lind ................................................................................ 68 Philanthropy, Patronage, and Urban Politics: Transatlantic Transfers Between Europe and North America in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries Thomas Adam.............. 71 Crime and Criminal Justice in Modern Germany, 1870–1960 Richard F. Wetzell .............................................................................................. 74 The Spirit of an Age: Nineteenth-Century Paintings from the Nationalgalerie, Berlin Cordula Grewe........................................................... 80 SEMINARS Young Scholars Forum 2001: Gender, Power, Religion— Forces in Cultural History Vera Lind ............................................................. 85 Seventh Transatlantic Doctoral Seminar in German History: Germany in the Age of Total War, 1914–1945 Andreas W. Daum and Richard F. Wetzell ........................................................ 92 Summer Seminar in Paleography and Archival Studies, June 17–30, 2001 Daniel S. Mattern ................................................................ 98 NEWS The Debate on the Reconstruction of the Berliner Stadtschloss ............. 103 The Life of Henry Villard (1835–1900) ........................................................ 103 Library Report ................................................................................................ 104 Recipients of the GHI’s Dissertation and Habilitation Scholarships, 2002 ................................................................... 104 New Publications........................................................................................... 105 Internship Program at the GHI.................................................................... 105 Staff Changes.................................................................................................106 EVENTS Fall 2001 Lecture Series ................................................................................. 109 Medieval History Seminar ........................................................................... 110 Annual Lecture 2001 ..................................................................................... 110 Friends of the GHI/Fritz Stern Dissertation Prize.................................... 110 Young Scholars Forum 2002 ......................................................................... 111 Thyssen-Heideking Fellowship................................................................... 111 Transatlantic Doctoral Seminar 2002 .......................................................... 112 Summer Seminar in Germany, June 2–15, 2002 ......................................... 113 Upcoming in 2001 and 2002 ......................................................................... 114 PREFACE The highlight of the Institute’s spring lecture program was the inauguration of the annual Gerd Bucerius Lecture on June 5th with a talk by Lord Ralf Dahrendorf on “Democracy Under Pressure: The European Experience.” The Annual Gerd Bucerius Lecture was made possible by a generous grant from the DIE ZEIT-Stiftung in Hamburg. Speakers in the series ad- dress topics of transatlantic relevance that are linked, in one way or an- other, to the life and concerns of Bucerius, the co-founder of Germany’s leading post-war intellectual weekly, DIE ZEIT. The series honors a man who helped rebuild German “civil society” after the collapse of the Nazi regime and who was, as Helmut Schmidt pointed out, ”obsessed with the idea of freedom“—a daring entrepreneur, leading publisher, and convinced liberal always on the lookout for threats to democratic processes. In the spirit of Bucerius, Lord Dahrendorf argued that democracy is under serious pressure in today’s Europe—and not only in Europe. He pointed to the weakening of the nation-state by a process of international- ization that, in his view, also implies a weakening of democratic institu- tions and political culture. Even the institutions of the European Union— as they are constituted today—fail “the democracy test.” Lord Dahrendorf’s provocative theses led to a vivid discussion with members of the Institute’s largest audience ever. The text of the lecture can be found on page five of this issue. A major feature of this issue is an article by Robert Gerald Livingston, senior visiting fellow at the GHI. In “From Harry S to George W.: German- American Relations and American Presidents”, Livingston discusses U.S. policy toward Europe and Germany from 1945 to 2001. Livingston argues that Germany has changed beyond recognition politically since Word War II and has become more distant from the United States. The fall Bulletin also draws attention to current debates in historiogra- phy with an article by Deborah Cohen, a professor of history at American University and co-convener of a GHI workshop on “Europe in Compara- tive and Cross-National Perspective” at the University of Cincinnati this past April. In her article “Comparative History: Buyer Beware” Cohen re- flects on the gains and pleasures, but even more so on the obstacles, costs, and pitfalls, of cross-national and comparative research within the histori- cal discipline. Above all, the Institute is proud to announce the publication of Die USA und Deutschland im Zeitalter des Kalten Krieges 1945–1990: Ein Handbuch GHI BULLETIN NO. 29 (FALL 2001) 1 (Munich, 2001), edited by the former director of the Institute, Detlef Junker, and three former GHI fellows, Philipp Gassert, Wilfried Mausbach, and David B. Morris. The two-volume handbook serves as an excellent refer- ence tool on the Cold War, offering some 150 articles in the fields of politics, security, economics, culture, and society. An English-language edition is scheduled for publication by Cambridge University Press in 2002. Christof Mauch GHI BULLETIN NO. 29 (FALL 2001) 2 EDMUND SPEVACK (1963–2001) The field of German–American history has lost a promising young scholar, Dr. Edmund Spevack, a former research fellow at the GHI, who died on July 2, 2001, in Münster, Germany, after having been diagnosed with brain cancer in 1999. The son of a German mother and an American father, Edmund was a citizen of two worlds, the Old and the New. He was educated on both sides of the Atlantic and was fluent in English and German. After German pre- paratory school he majored in history and literature at Harvard University and was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1986. He began his graduate studies at the University of Münster but returned to his adopted country, this time to Johns Hopkins University, from which he received his M.A. in 1989 and his Ph.D. in 1992. As a visiting assistant professor he taught American studies at the University of Stuttgart (1992–3) and he lectured in history and literature at Harvard University (1993–6). Thereafter, he joined the staff of the GHI, turning down other offers, including a presti- gious Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship. Dur- ing his first year in Washington he was a Volkswagen Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the GHI with a joint appointment at the American Institute of Contemporary German Studies. The following year he became a fully fledged GHI research fellow. During his tenure at the GHI he co- authored The German Historical Institute, Washington, D.C.: Ten Year Report, 1987–1997 (with Detlef Junker and Thomas Goebel) and served as a GHI representative at cultural leadership meetings. If it is true that historical research reflects autobiographical elements, it may be particularly true for Edmund and his commitment to the field of German–American relations. His dissertation on Charles Follen’s Search for Nationality and Freedom: Germany and America, 1796–1840 (published by Harvard University Press in 1997), mirrors Edmund’s own search for a deeper understanding of German and American intellectual and political culture. During his four years at the Institute (1996–9) Edmund worked on his second book, a major study of American influences on the West German constitution, the Grundgesetz. He concluded that Americans had been much more deeply involved